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Monthly Archives: August 2013

Forged Bloodlines 1-3 now available as a boxed set

bloodlines

My Forged Bloodlines series books 1-3 are now available as a boxed set for your kindle. Easy to navigate between books from the table of contents, this set contains Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down, Meet Me When the Sun Goes Down and Find Me When the Sun Goes down, Anja’s notes on all the vampire Houses and a preview of Miss Me When the Sun Goes Down. It can be found here on Amazon.com for $9.99.

In other news, we’re getting close to releasing book 5 in the series, Follow Me When the Sun Goes Down and I’m starting to plan the next Mercy Book. I’m also working on an audio version of The Touch and designing a new cover for it, so keeping plenty busy!

Psst – Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down is also free today on Kindle.

We Have A Winner!

Thanks to everybody who voted. It looks like the one on the left was the overall favorite, and I agree, I like the idea that she’s a little farther down, waiting for us to follow her. The winner of the free book is Vikki! Vikki, you have your choice of the ebook (faster) or a signed print book (prettier, but a few weeks longer), I’ll send you an email to talk about which you’d prefer.

Follow Me is coming along nicely through the editing process, it won’t be long now!




Vote on cover art for Follow Me When the Sun Goes Down

Hey guys, it’s time to give your input on which cover art you like better for Follow Me When the Sun Goes Down. Not too much difference between the two except for how close the girl is in the pic. So, sound off with your opinion in the comments section and it automatically enters you in a drawing for a free copy of the new book. I’ll leave it up to you whether you’d prefer to have the ebook copy (which will be ready a lot faster) or a signed print copy (which will be a lot prettier).

So, let’s hear it – which cover do you prefer? The one on the left or the one on the right?

I’m not above stealing – Random facts about me.

I have been encouraged to steal a post idea from J.L. Murray (you should totally check out her books, by the way, she rocks! www.jlmurraywriter.com) to help combat the idea that it’s better for me to post some random facts about myself than try to coherently cobble anything else together while I’m in the home stretch of writing my new book. Here is a list of random facts in no particular order.

1) I am obsessed with Joss Whedon. I’ll pretty much watch anything he makes. Even if all he did was pick up coffee for the cast. If Joss is associated, I’m in. Every once in a while I have dreams where I meet him and I’m all suave and cool and not the hopeless tongue-tied mess I’d really be IRL.

2) I listen to classical music while I write. Sometimes it’s a specific song on a loop over and over again, but mostly I need something soft and in the background otherwise, I get too distracted. Now, while I’m plotting is another story entirely. Then I listen to a weird hodge podge of music, anything from Muse to Portishead to Journey to Ke$ha to The Carpenters to Marilyn Manson to musical numbers from The Pirate Movie… it’s a weird playlist.

3) I share many geeky interests with Anja such as: superheroes (particularly Cap), Lord of the Rings, Sliders, Big Bang Theory, Star Trek, Star Wars, Zombies, Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who, Firefly, Buffy, and of course fabulous movies like Sharktopus and Sharknado. But I have never been particularly into comic books.

4) I am scared to death of speaking in public. I will probably never give a book reading. Like ever. There’s a reason I chose a profession that allows me to remain behind the scenes and interact with fans solely through the internet. I guess I could always hire a shill if I get rich and famous enough. But I’m also enough of a control freak that I know it’d drive me nuts, so no… don’t think I’ll ever do that.

5) I recorded an album when I was seven years old. I was part of a band of kids that sang and danced in Spanish and English. We performed all over California, mostly at private functions but things like county fairs and stuff too. We once performed at Disneyland. We put out a record every couple of years and the one I was on I sang two songs for and I was on the cover.

6) I live in the Pacific Northwest because of an April Fool’s Joke. I primarily grew up in Santa Cruz, CA (which is wicked expensive!). The company I worked for had their HQ up near Portland Oregon, and as a joke I came home and told my husband that they were so happy with my performance that they wanted to transfer me to their corporate office. To my utter surprise, he said “Okay, let’s do it!” To which I had to admit I was full of… April foolery, and there was no job opening up there. But we started looking into it anyway and though it took us another five years to make it up here, we sold our house and took the plunge with no clear idea of how we’d make a living. It worked out though, and I love living here!

7) I wanted to be a cop when I was growing up. Or something in law enforcement. Not a huge surprise that both my parents worked for the Sheriff’s department, but I set off to college thinking I’d join them some day.

8) I am a fantastic cook, but I only cook once a week. Of course, I cook a crapton of food on that day, enough to set us up with meals for the week because I’m also lazy as hell.

9) I am the weirdest combination of driven and lazy that you’ll ever meet (see above). Driven = slave over a hot stove all day long in 90 degree heat, Lazy = let the Tupperware build up for a week before I get to it. Driven = push myself to write between 4K and 5K words per day even if I’m sick, Lazy = wear pajamas until noon and text my kid to come and close my office door that’s less than ten feet away.

10) Like Cady, I skipped a grade in school. Okay, so it was kindergarten, but it made me younger than all of my classmates for the rest of my school career, which was alternately cool and annoying. It also led to some unusual age differences in boyfriends such as:

11) I married my high school sweetheart. Yep, started dating him when I was 14 (and he was 18!) years old and we’ve been married now for 22 years. So yes, I am living proof that you can completely fall in love at first sight and live happily ever after.

In other news, I am sooooo close to finishing Follow Me When the Sun Goes Down, I can taste it!  I’ll be revealing the cover art for you to vote on soon and we’ll have a book giveaway in the near future.

Miss Me When the Sun Goes Down is out in Print!

We finally got Miss Me When the Sun Goes Down out in print! So, for all you out there who prefer to hold the physical book in your hands (and it is pretty!), you can buy it on Amazon.com here.

In other news, The next book in the series, Follow Me When the Sun Goes Down is coming along very well, just crested the 81K mark and there’s still quite a bit of excitement to get to. Also, I finally broke down and started an author page on Facebook, you can find it here for updates on book stuff and some fun giveaways in the future.

Forged Bloodlines Q & A

Thanks to everybody who responded in comments and privately for this Q&A focusing on the Forged Bloodlines series. I’ll put the general questions first, and then leave a break before the spoilers in case someone would rather be surprised.

Where can I get a robot brain?
I got mine from the Creator. As far as I know, there aren’t any upgrades available. You could always summon the robot overlords and petition for a robot brain, but I wouldn’t unless you’re prepared to pay the price.

How long have you been writing?
Technically, before I was in kindergarten. Actual books, for about four years. Before that I’d start a project and lose interest. I was the queen of unfinished projects until NaNoWriMo taught me how to push past my inner editor.

What is NaNoWriMo?
National Novel Writing Month takes place in November (though there are equivalents that run for every month of the year) and the basic premise is this: Write 50,000 words in one month. That’s it. No editing, just 50k words that will probably be crap. The first time I tried it, I came in just shy of 100k words and Moonsong was born. Moonsong was so sucky it went through many major revisions before I got it right, but this was a breakthrough for me, giving myself permission to suck instead of coming up with something perfect. You can always fix what you write, but you can never fix what you don’t write.

Where do you get your writing ideas?
They come to me at all times of the day, but I find bathrooms give me the best ideas. If I’m ever stuck on a scene, all I have to do is go and stand in the bathroom (shower if I’m really stuck) and I get an idea. It doesn’t matter if it’s my bathroom, at a friend’s house or a public restroom. Prolly kinda creepy, but there it is.

Who designs your covers?
My husband, James, works on the covers for me. Sometimes I find the image first, but lately he’s been coming up with them on his own. If we’re ever stuck between two ideas, I like to put them up here on my website for a vote. I love to get your guys’ input!

*** Spoiler Section Below ***

Some of these are not really big spoilers, but read on at your own peril!